The Creative Connection

Holly Becker is the founder and editor of decor8, the internationally-known design site dedicated to delivering fresh design ideas meant to inspire its over 45,000 daily readers to live a more fulfilling, authentic and creative life. Since its launch in January 2006, decor8 has been mentioned in over 70 national and international publications, in addition to radio and television programs and Blogger ranked it #10 in 2008. Holly is an American freelance journalist, author and design consultant living in Germany while also maintaining a US office in Portsmouth, New Hampshire.

In addition to decor8, she is the founder of the first online e-course about creative blogging, Blogging Your Way, which was launched in March 2009 and includes written lessons, videocasts and podcasts along with a dedicated forum for students to interact with Holly and her co-teachers, Leslie Shewring and Thorsten Becker along with other students. In the past two years, she has taught over 2,000 students worldwide through Blogging Your Way and teaches workshops and classes in-person on decorating and blogging with her most recent being in Morroco for ACE Camps. In addition to decor8, Holly maintains her more personal blog, Haus Maus, which documents her life as an expat living abroad navigating a new culture.

Holly has worked with a number of top magazines, she was an online columnist for Domino magazine for two years along with parenting magazine, Cookie, and a style editor for both HGTV magazine and their online site. Holly also reported on trends for The Boston Globe’s Style and Arts section as a bi-weekly columnist before relocating to Germany. Holly is currently in her fourth year as a weekly columnist for Real Simple magazine online. She has been quoted in and has contributed to a variety of books, which include: Lotta Jansdotter’s Handmade Living by Lotta Jansdotter (2010) and The Handmade Marketplace by Kari Chapin (2010).

Her debut book, Decorate: 1,000 Professional Ideas for Every Room in Your Home published by Chronicle Books, just released in the United States and was simultaneously published by Jacqui Small Publishing in London and Murdoch Books in Australia. Decorate will be translated and published in Germany by Callwey Verlag in September 2011 under the title, Lust auf Wohnen.

When Holly isn’t working she loves to spend time with her husband, Thorsten, as they both love to comb flea markets for treasures, take photos and spend time outdoors — particularly in the huge forest behind their home. She also loves to decorate, work on craft projects, travel, inline skate and take daily “night walks” with her sweetheart as they have been doing since they first met 12 years ago.

Holly will be featured in the Autumn 2011 issue of WHERE WOMEN CREATE and will be signing copies at the Autograph Party.

Becky has a passion for living well and documenting life. Since 1997 she has been authoring books, creating artwork, writing articles, teaching classes, and designing products—all in the name of scrapbooking. In her personal evolution she came to find herself relating to everyone who has said, “Scrapbooking is too time-consuming, too complicated, too expensive, too much.” In 2009, Becky Higgins.com was born so that she could share solution-based ideas and simple products with everyone who felt the same way, but still wanted to do something special with their pictures and memories. Becky nurtures her creative side by dabbling in various creative projects from floral design to home decor to photography. She also appreciates organization and has a knack for order. And because she can’t keep any of it to herself, Becky’s Blog has gained the reputation of being an uplifting and inspiring place on the web. She’s the girlfriend who will share her favorite finds, most-loved tips, design ideas, tried and true recipes, practical how-to’s, and even videos. There’s always a common goal in everything Becky shares, which is to CULTIVATE A GOOD LIFE. Becky’s faith and family are the center of her world and more important than any creative project or exciting opportunity. Arizona is where she and her husband David are raising their three small children.

Becky will be featured in the Autumn 2011 issue of WHERE WOMEN CREATE and will be signing copies at the Autograph Party.

In December 2008, Kim decided to leave her career in real estate to stay home with her young kids, Tommy and Kate. Always crafty and creative, she started a blog to share her craft projects, decorating, and party ideas. She had recently decided to convert a room in her home to a craft studio and came up with the blog name “TomKat Studio” from the combination of her kids’ names. Kim’s blog quickly gained a loyal following and readers asked if they could buy things that she was making, including hand-decorated frames and invitations. On a whim, she decided to open an Etsy shop. Within weeks she was overwhelmed with orders. After her daughter Kate’s lollipop birthday party was featured on a popular party blog—Hostess with the Mostess—in April 2009, demand for her creations soared. Not being able to keep up with the demand, Kim closed up shop that summer and took a short break. She came back and reopened as a printable party shop. (more…)